title: Human factors and ergonomics as a patient safety practice.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Human factors and ergonomics (HFE) approaches to patient safety have addressed five different domains: usability of technology; human error and its role in patient safety; the role of healthcare worker performance in patient safety; system resilience; and HFE systems approaches to patient safety.
  
  
  METHODS
  A review of various HFE approaches to patient safety and studies on HFE interventions was conducted.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This paper describes specific examples of HFE-based interventions for patient safety. Studies show that HFE can be used in a variety of domains.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  HFE is a core element of patient safety improvement. Therefore, every effort should be made to support HFE applications in patient safety.
authors.affiliation: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement, University of Wisconsin-Madison, , Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
authors.forename: Pascale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Carayon
authors.forename: Anping
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kianfar
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D006804:Ergonomics; D005160:Facility Design and Construction; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control; D008490:Medical Informatics; D061214:Patient Safety; D058996:Quality Improvement; D018570:Risk Assessment
keywords: Human error; Human factors; Patient safety